— Warren J. Wright is the Councilman for Ward 1, city of Fort Myers

Guest opinion: Lake O releases affect us all

In the months after the Army Corps began releasing large amounts of water into the Caloosahatchee, the ecosystem of the waters in Southwest Florida have been drastically changed.

The nutrients found in this water have greatly impacted the water quality.

Recently, five different kinds of algae blooms have appeared in the Caloosahatchee Estuary. This not only has an effect on the fish and wildlife that inhabit these waters, it also hurts those who are interested in fishing or who make a living from the tourism industry.

The Army Corps’ current Tentatively Selected Plan, or TSP, is going to continue to severely damage the fragile ecosystem of the Caloosahatchee Estuary. In order to alleviate the estuary and inhibit the amount of damage done to this waterway, the Army Corps TSP must be altered to recognize the considerable damage that has already been done to the estuary.

The Army Corps biologists have recommended an amount of water that can be released from Lake Okeechobee and still maintain healthy waterways.

However, the TSP for 2007-2010 will release polluted water into the Caloosahatchee at a greater rate than suggested by these biologists.

In order to ensure that these measures are followed, and to allow for increased oversight of the water releases, the language of the proposed schedule should prohibit any water releases greater than the amount proposed by biologists. The release schedule followed by the Army Corps should reflect the most current data and their biologists’ recommended release amount.

There are opportunities to relieve the stress that the Caloosahatchee River and the estuary are currently experiencing due to water releases.

The South Florida Water Management District currently owns or leases 450,000 acres of land that could possibly be used for water storage. In addition, the TSP does not propose managing water levels through small, multi-directional water releases. Utilizing both the land for emergency water storage and alternate methods of water release will take the burden off of the Caloosahatchee and its already fragile estuary.

The Caloosahatchee River and the estuary must be protected. The local economy is reliant on these waters through both the tourism industry and the fishing industry. We cannot afford to lose this most precious environmental and economic resource to the damaging effects of increased water releases from Lake Okeechobee.